blog posts

The time that I love the most is spring festival. Being the first day of the year in lunar calendar, spring festival signifies a new beginning, and it is always time for family to be together. Among most countries in Asia, people celebrate spring festival as the most important day of the year. Lunar New Year always starts at mid February-ish, which is exactly the time when midterms go on. As a result, being an international student like me, it is no way to gather with my family at all - I cannot just drop my midterms and go all the way home. However...

During my first visit of University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, a gorgeous shell-like building located in the center of campus caught my eye. At first I thought it was a stadium since it was huge, but later on I find out that Krannert Center is for performing arts. It is a place to enjoy performing arts and for art students to practice what they learn in class. It is really a hidden treasure for Champaign-Urbana, especially for students.

U of I students enjoy student discount for tickets so it is easy for students to enjoy performing arts in a fairly low price, right here on campus. Not only do Art major students in University of Illinois perform some of the shows, but also will world famous groups perform here. All kinds of shows...

Hi everyone, welcome back! How was your Winter break? We are now on a brand new page: 2015. I'm looking forward to the start of Spring semester.

There is a really significant event every semester: the career fair. Some of you may already have heard about it before, and we had several blogs about career fair too. I personally also went to a career fair, but I also realized how hard it was for an international student like me to find a full time job or even a internship. I am new to this culture, this language, and many other aspects. How can I stand out in many other candidates and get the position I want?

Last semester, I learned about International Career Certificate program in ISSS newsletter. I heard about the program a lot, and that it was especially designed for helping international student succeed in job market. Since I recently met some difficulties in job hunting...

How was your Thanksgiving break? Just as students came back from Fall break, Thanksgiving becomes a popular small talk topic on campus nowadays. Although after fall break, there will be only two weeks of study and the semester will be over, a week of break is still a good escape from the intense study.

Thanksgiving is an important holiday in U.S., while on that day family will gather together and have a delicious meal. For international students...

Hi everyone, welcome to ISSS blog. Today I am glad to talk about my experience as being a international orientation student leader. I have been a IOSL for two years and it is one of the best experiences I have on campus.

I applied to be a IOSL back when I was a freshman. I was once confused and panic for the unknown college life. Yet so many have helped me in all aspects, both in life and in academic. After a while when I finally settled down and comfortable with everything, the application of IOSL on ISSS newsletter attracted me. Every year there are many international students come to university of Illinois, and they will all experience the same thing I had been through. Since I have been helped by so many people, I want to help the new students back so that they can have the same positive study abroad experience as mine.